Related Stories

MasterChef Canada’s Aaron Polsky was sent home this week after his vegetarian tagine failed to impress the judges.

But that wasn’t the hardest loss he took while competing in the MasterChef Canada kitchen. Losing the Restaurant Takeover in Chef Michael Bonacini’s north Toronto landmark Auberge du Pommier earlier in the episode stung the worst.

“I got to be honest with you, we were really surprised to take that loss,” Polsky says down the line from Montreal. “We left (Auberge du Pommier) in very good spirits. We didn’t think we lost that challenge. There was only one dish that came back to the kitchen in the entire service and that went to the other team’s kitchen. We thought that was an indicator that we had a leg up.”

“I grew up in a Jewish- Moroccan neighbourhood and those flavours are not strangers to me,” he says. “I just dropped the ball on this one. There’s no other way to put it.”

Several weeks back, Polsky took some heat for choosing to save himself after captaining his team to a loss in a burger challenge. But he stands behind that decision.

“I think that a lot of people have an easy time judging when they’re not under fire,” he says. “When you go to MasterChef Canada, there are a lot of people at home supporting you. My wife is sleeping alone at home, I run a family business with my father and brother who were both pulling 60-hour weeks to make up for my tasks at work. And when these people are at home supporting you, it’s kind of a slap in the face to ignore any advantage you are given to help what is really a complete stranger.”

At the end of Thursday’s episode, Polsky got a job offer from Chef Bonacini to work at the Montreal outpost of his O&B restaurant.

“That was an extraordinary honour,” he says. “We all go into the MasterChef Canada Kitchen wanting the title and the trophy and the $100,000 prize, but we also want to be looked at as a chef. Michael offering me a position in a professional capacity is the acknowledgement I was looking for.”

Until that spot opens up, Polsky is readying his own Montreal hot spot, Bar Linda, and working in the family’s valve manufacturing business.

“I’m not dropping anything, I’m taking on more,” he says with a laugh.

With MasterChef Canada now down to the top five, Polsky thinks Edmonton’s Trevor Connie has the competition wrapped up.

“My boy Trevor has got this,” he says. “He’s a smart cook; he’s a talented young man with fantastic plating skills. If I was still in the competition, my eyes would be on him.”